OTTAWA: Liberal MP tells health committee the Tories are 'scaring people to death' OTTAWA - The Conservative government is "going around scaring people to death" with "panicky" and politically motivated anti-marijuana commercials, Liberal MP Hedy Fry told the Commons health committee Thursday. Health Minister Rona Ambrose replied the TV ads are based on science and aren't partisan. The multimillion-dollar campaign includes a TV spot that shows a human brain made out of glass tubes with thick smoke flowing through them. "(Marijuana) can damage a teen for life," the narrator says. [continues 177 words]
(AP) - New Jersey officials have given a fourth dispensary permission to start growing medical marijuana, so it could start offering it to patients in the spring. The Health Department issued the permit Friday to Breakwater Alternative Treatment Center in Cranbury Township, Middlesex County. New Jersey has had a law allowing medical marijuana for nearly five years, but drafting state regulations and opening dispensaries has been a slow process. The first one opened two years ago, and since then two others have joined. New Jersey picked six nonprofit groups to cultivate and sell marijuana. About 3,400 patients are registered with the program, and 364 physicians across the state are enrolled so they can recommend marijuana to patients. [end]
Collection moving to Detroit, while organizer plans 'world-class dispensary' for Vancouver For the last decade, $2.50 would get you a 30-minute tour through the ins and outs of herbal medicine - from the story behind Absinthe to a brief history of magic mushrooms in Canada to ancient cannabis use. But after 10 years in Vancouver, the Herb Museum - billed as a global one-of-a-kind site for scope and accessibility - is closing its doors to make way for a seed sanctuary in the BC Marijuana Party Building. [continues 241 words]
'Looking for Answers'. Producer Hopes to Begin Next Spring British Columbia researchers and a medical marijuana producer have joined forces to conduct Canada's first-ever clinical trial to back up anecdotal evidence in using cannabis to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with hard facts. Pending regulatory approval, the University of British Columbia Okanagan and Tilray, a Health Canada licensed producer under the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations, hope to begin the world's first large-scale clinical trial examining cannabis for a mental health disorder as early as spring 2015. [continues 319 words]
After months of futile meetings, a state task force that was supposed to make recommendations regarding the appearance of edible marijuana products has failed. But this effort should by no means be over. Lawmakers need to step up and act when they convene in January. The legislature must draft rules for marijuana edibles to make them easily identifiable when outside their packaging - a necessary step to protect people, especially children, from unintended exposure. If a recognizable industry stamp or sprayed-on color doesn't differentiate the items from non-marijuana products, then they shouldn't be sold. [continues 304 words]
The latest vote on marijuana hasn't even been certified yet and one of the Anchorage assembly members, Amy Demboski (most notably positioning herself for a run at mayor), is introducing a resolution to circumvent the people's majority vote of "Yes" on the marijuana issue. Our democratic process is in danger of going up in smoke (pardon the pun). - - Rory Spurlock Anchorage [end]
Amy Demboski, please stop. The election results haven't even been certified and yet you want Anchorage to opt out of commercial marijuana. A majority of Alaskans have decided to end the failure of prohibition, but you want to continue with the campaign of fear and misinformation. Why should Anchorage opt out? There is no reasonable justification. Not one. Marijuana is proven to be safer than alcohol, tobacco and caffeine yet these are all sold in Anchorage. You are on the wrong side of history. Don't take us down with you. - - Andrew Dowd Anchorage [end]
The history of anti-drug public-service ads is so long and illustrious that it's hard to pick a favourite from the lot. I have a particular affection for the New Zealand commercial that features a man in a club bathroom literally removing a piece of his brain, chopping it in a tiny bloody line and hoovering it up his nose. But then there is also the anti-methamphetamine ad from the United States, in which a doleful voice warns would-be tweekers, "This is where she used to be a cheerleader. This is the sink where she started pulling out her eyebrows." [continues 788 words]
Regarding Bill Lane's Sunday My Word, "Why treat pot differently than alcohol?": Marijuana prohibition is indefensible. As evidenced by the narrow defeat of medical marijuana in this past Florida election, the days when politicians can get away with confusing the drug war's tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant are coming to an end. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply-and-demand dynamics so that Big Money grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure. The United States has almost double the lifetime rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana has been legally available for decades. [continues 57 words]
North American first comes after more than a year of battles between doctors and federal Health Minister In a North American first, heroin addicts in Vancouver will soon receive prescription heroin outside of a clinical trial. Doctors at the Providence Crosstown Clinic received shipment of the drug this week for 26 former trial participants and will begin administering the drugs next week. In all, 120 severely addicted people have received authorization from Health Canada to receive the drugs; the rest are expected to get them soon. [continues 597 words]
Re: "Razing houses," Letter, Nov. 21. I agree with Christopher Bennett that the Canadian government should be outraged regarding Israel's bulldozing of the family homes of Palestinian criminals who murdered their citizens, leaving the innocent occupants without shelter. I see no difference in Canada where the homes of convicted marijuana grow operators are seized by provincial governments under the pretext of financing law enforcement, leaving the innocent occupants and children without shelter. Here, also, we endorse a policy where the sins of one family member are carried by all of the family. In Israel, murder carries this punishment; in Canada, the growing of marijuana has the same result. Where is the outrage here? Norma Higgs, Calgary [end]